Chapter 34

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"It's a little stupid, but do you wanna go into a haunted house with me?" Jungkook asked while handing Taehyung his Odeng. He'd thought Taehyung was probably going to like something fishy, after all that was what he usually ate in the ocean. Aside from a human snack every once in a while it seemed.

He had chosen some Tteokbokki for himself because he really felt like eating something spicy. He had to get Taehyung to try something spicy sometime.

"What is that?" Taehyung asked, inspecting the food in his hand. Jungkook really wasn't sure whether he was referring to the food or the haunted house. "The thing you're holding is some fish that you really should try, and a haunted house is a place that's mainly there to scare humans. We have a bunch of theories of scary things that could exist... a little like you. I wouldn't say sirens are usually viewed as scary-" He interrupted himself. "Let's sit down over there." He pointed at a small fountain in the middle of the square. Some people who had just been sitting on the edge had left, which meant there was some space to sit.

"Anyways, sirens aren't usually seen as scary. Instead we picture them more as a little dangerous but mostly really alluring sea creatures that, in movies and so on, usually end up falling in love with the human." Jungkook continued as he sat down next to Taehyung.

"Like Jimin." Taehyung shook his head as if to disapprove but Jungkook didn't miss the small smile playing around his lips. He couldn't help wondering whether Taehyung approved of Yoongi's and Jimin's relationship. After all he seemed to look down on humans.

"Yeah, like Jimin. Certainly not like you though." Jungkook chuckled. He realized that he could let Taehyung try some of his food to find out whether he was okay with spiciness or not. Honestly, he wouldn't have been surprised if Taehyung wasn't bothered by the spiciness at all. After all his body was tough as fuck.

"Wanna try some of my food?" Jungkook asked, pointing at it. "I need to warn you though... it's spicy which... in a way is a little like pain? But people like it for some odd reason." Jungkook chuckled, picking up some of the Tteokbokki and holding it up to Taehyung's mouth. Taehyung, while a little hesitant, opened his mouth and took the bite. Jungkook watched in amusement as he closed his mouth around it, grimacing. A little like a child. He swallowed quickly before sticking out his tongue.

Jungkook couldn't help laughing. That was just too cute. Even from Taehyung.

"Weird, right? No clue why we like it." He took another bite. Yeah, it burnt... why did he like this? It made no sense whatsoever.

"More?" He found Taehyung staring at his paper plate.

Jungkook snorted. Wow, so it did work on sirens too? The power of spiciness.

"Sure." Jungkook picked up some more with his little toothpick before holding it up to Taehyung's mouth. When Taehyung leaned forward to get it off the toothpick Jungkook heard some whispers he'd heard way too many times to just brush it off.

"What is wrong with them?" "Disgusting."

"What did you say?" Jungkook dropped the empty toothpick on his little paper plate before getting up. Taehyung seemed confused as to why Jungkook was getting up, but Jungkook just placed the plate down before turning to face the guys.

They were probably around his age. A little younger maybe, but not by a lot. They looked at least nineteen. All of them seemed startled, like they really hadn't expected to be called out on their bullshit. Jungkook wasn't going to let it pass either way.

"I'm pretty sure you guys were talking about us, so I just wanna know what you were saying. Why don't you tell me to my face. What did you say?" Jungkook knew he could be intimidating. He had been told before many times by friends.

The boys seemed to think the same, aside from one that seemed a little braver, or rather more stupid, who stepped forward, puffing up his chest like that was going to make him seem any stronger. He was a little taller than Jungkook but really... Jungkook didn't care.

"We were talking about how disgusting faggots are." The guy almost seemed proud that he knew such words. Jungkook really had a strong urge to punch him in the face, especially when he stepped even closer, pushing Jungkook back with both his hands.

Jungkook really regretted having to take a step back to find his balance again. He didn't want to back up, especially not in front of guys like this. Even if it was just a step. But before he could do anything, like taking a step forward again, Jungkook saw Taehyung move in the corner of his eyes.

They were closer to the fountain than expected because Taehyung only had to take a few steps before he was standing next to Jungkook. It looked almost soft and elegant when Taehyung grabbed the guy by his collar.

For a second Jungkook was genuinely convinced Taehyung was going to slice his throat in front of everyone here... but he didn't. Instead he turned around with a lack of emotion in his expression that Jungkook hadn't seen for quite some time, his steps so calm and relaxed that you could only tell the strength that actually was behind his movements by the way the guy stumbled along.

And then Taehyung pushed him backwards. Right into the fountain. The guy's legs were stopped by the small edge, but the force of Taehyung's push made him lose his balance and he fell back anyways. Jungkook was pretty sure that a couple of seconds had passed, but it all had felt like it had happened in the blink of an eye.

Jungkook only managed to move again when he saw how the boy was flailing his arms around, trying to sit up in the fountain. It wasn't deep. It should have been so easy to break through the surface and yet he seemed to be incapable to do so.

Jungkook turned to find his friends staring without moving. They seemed too surprised to do anything. Another few seconds passed and the boy's movements grew more panicked as he tried to sit up... and Jungkook realized what was happening. Taehyung was holding him in place. Like he had with Jungkook at the pool. Jungkook quickly grabbed Taehyung's arm, pulling on it to get his attention, before whisper hissing. "You can't kill him. If you do people will be asking questions and you could get in serious trouble!"

And once again Jungkook realized just how dangerous Taehyung could be. Even when he was being nice to Jungkook, he really couldn't underestimate him. And most importantly... he couldn't get Taehyung into a situation where he could actually end up killing a human. To a certain extent it was Jungkook's job to make sure Taehyung wouldn't attack anyone... at least while he was with him.

Taehyung seemed less than willing to let go. Next to them the splashing was getting more frantic and Jungkook was pretty sure people were starting to stare. But of course no one was trying to help. Who would have expected something else. Although in all fairness, the guy was sitting in like forty centimeters of water. Usually there would have been no need to save him.

"Please, Taehyung." Jungkook tried again. This time Taehyung exhaled, sounding slightly annoyed, before moving his hand a little and Jungkook watched with relief as the guy broke through the surface, panickedly gasping for air. He looked absolutely exhausted and Jungkook would have felt pity if he hadn't kinda deserved that.

"Let's go somewhere else." Jungkook muttered. He really wanted to get away from that area and try to avoid drawing any further attention to Taehyung. Once they were out of earshot he leaned over to Taehyung, who was very intentionally not looking at him. Seemed a little like sulking admittedly.

"Thank you for letting him go when I asked you to..." Jungkook poked Taehyung's side before smiling a little. "And thank you for defending me, I appreciate it. I really can do that on my own though. I know I'm weak to you but I certainly wouldn't call myself weak in comparison to other humans." He continued.

"You are weak." Jungkook was pretty damn sure there was a bit of a joking tone in Taehyung's voice. "Humans are really fragile."

Jungkook shook his head. "You would know. They can be quite durable too though. Not underwater, but there are people that have fallen from an airplane and survived... or have been hit by lightning. But other times you could, like, fall half a meter the wrong way and die. It's weird." Jungkook chuckled. "You don't have to worry about me though. Wouldn't have been my first time taking a punch of two for standing up to homophobic assholes."

"Homophobic?" The word sounded a little off in the way Taehyung said it. Probably because he didn't know it.

"Um yeah. When two guys or two girls love each other, that's called being homosexual. When someone feels like that is weird then that is homophobia. These guys saw that I was giving you my food and apparently that's gay enough for them to comment on it."

Taehyung seemed to think about that a little before turning back to Jungkook. "And you like guys?"

For a second he wondered whether sirens could like the same gender as well before remembering that Yoongi and Jimin were both very clearly in a same sex relationship. So he was pretty sure that Taehyung wasn't homophobic.

"I like both guys and girls." Jungkook explained as they walked down the alley with attractions on either side. Maybe they shouldn't go to a walk-through haunted house... if they did there was the risk of some staff in costume touching Taehyung and if that happened Jungkook really couldn't guarantee their survival. So maybe a haunted ride would be better.

"Do sirens have preferences too?" Jungkook asked, admittedly kind of curious. He wanted to know if Jimin was out of the norm with his attraction to not only a human but another man at that.

But to his surprise, Taehyung just shrugged his shoulders. "Just whoever we fall in love with."

It made sense in a way. Sirens only fell in love once. A thing like sexuality didn't make sense if they only felt attracted to one person. At that point, it wasn't about gender but the person itself. Sounded a little like demisexuality... if demisexual people could only fall in love once.

To their side was a haunted ride that seemed somewhat appealing, at least as far as he could tell from the outside. These things always looked cheap but this one at least had a decently color coded exterior. Not a bunch of cheap looking colors and fonts like most other haunted rides here had.

"So... you wanna go try a haunted ride? Like I was trying to explain earlier, they are just places that are meant to be scary if that makes sense. People like to be scared it seems." Jungkook explained. "We have a bunch of mythological creatures that we somewhat know don't exist, but still get scared of." Honestly, every time Jungkook explained anything human to Taehyung he realized how dumb it actually was.

'We eat spicy things because we like pain. We get scared of things that don't exist. We pick a partner just to decide differently later.' Taehyung probably thought humans were crazy by now.

At least he nodded, not bothering to point out the weirdness to that. Although, considering that sirens were real... maybe everything else wasn't as far fetched as it felt. If there was a creature that could shapeshift and sing people to their death, why couldn't there be someone coming back from the dead or someone that could use magic? At some point Jungkook was going to have to ask Taehyung about that. Maybe he would reveal that these things weren't just human's imagination.

Taehyung hummed in acknowledgement before taking in the haunted house as well. Maybe it did look quite cheap... these things just always did. A little like the type of horror movie that mainly lived off jumpscares.

"Let's get in there and then grab something proper to eat. I think its time... and then let's see how long we will stay because I'm pretty sure the people here will at least double in the afternoon... and as well behaved as you have been today - excluding you almost drowning that guy earlier - I really don't think you would appreciate squeezing through masses of people either."

Taehyung nodded, moving towards the haunted house by himself and Jungkook followed right after. It wasn't like he had any other choice given that their fingers were still interlinked. Once again they got in line. Jungkook told Taehyung about how humans believed in ghosts, zombies, witches and what not while they waited and Taehyung seemed genuinely curious, although based on his reactions none of these seemed to exist. At least not to Taehyung's knowledge.

When they slipped into the haunted ride, Jungkook barely even noticed the fact that he and Taehyung were squeezed next to each other. He was too caught up in telling Taehyung about the one time he, as a child, had been absolutely certain that ghosts did indeed exist and that his dead grandfather had spoken to him. Taehyung seemed highly amused, but also listened curiously.

"But then my dad came in..." Jungkook was interrupted when the wagon moved forward. "Ah, the ride is starting... no worries, this one won't go anywhere high or flip around." Jungkook chuckled at the way Taehyung tensed up. "It might get a little loud though. These things are cheap in equipment so they try to make it up through even cheaper sounds they took off the internet that they play at full volume." He didn't fail to notice the way Taehyung's eyebrows furrowed a little in confusion at 'internet'.

Maybe if they had time Jungkook would have to introduce Taehyung to the internet... but then again, he would have actually had to show Taehyung how to write first. Maybe he was just going to give Tae a tour of the internet. Whatever he could fit into these last few days before Taehyung left.

That was actually quite sad. They finally seemed to be somewhat... getting along Jungkook would have even gone and said maybe he was going to miss Taehyung and now Taehyung was going to leave soon. The wagon pushed through the door in front of them that looked absolutely nothing like wood, even though that was what it was supposed to be. It was probably made of two plastic panels that had wood drawn onto them... and some blood.

Unlike with the roller coaster their wagon moved independently. Jungkook and Taehyung were alone in this. The door behind them closed and Jungkook found himself in complete and utter darkness. For a moment it was dead silent before he heard some laughing behind them, right by the door they had just been pushed through. In front of them a little light switched on, revealing a witch leaning over her cauldron, cackling maniacally as she threw some human arms into the mix... which wasn't the scariest concept in the first place but really looked weak given that the witch was just a very sad mix of wood, cardboard and one moving arm. She didn't let go of the human arms too. Instead she was in an endless loop that made her move her arm up and down three times during the time the light was on her.

When the spot was turned off again, the other side lit up. It showed some children caught in cages, crying and begging. The sound played over the boxes was now children wailing loudly. Man, all of this had to be just day to day life for Taehyung.

Nothing scary about it at all. They moved further down the hallway into a room that was somewhat properly lit. While earlier only parts had been illuminated, Jungkook could actually see Taehyung sitting next to him now. Taehyung looked like a lot of things. Amused, curious, maybe a little skeptical, but certainly not scared. The new scary addition, skeletons chained to the walls like they had been prisoners that had simply been forgotten and had found their bitter end, certainly didn't seem to bother him either. It was only when one of the skeletons abruptly lifted his head and reached out his hand that Taehyung showed a reaction.

Not a startled one though. Instead he snorted.

"Are you having fun?" Jungkook leaned over a little to ask him over the sound of tortured groaning that was played in the background. There was a sudden scream and Jungkook was pretty sure he had just missed a very dramatic sight but he really didn't care.

Taehyung took a few seconds to answer, his expression shifting into something Jungkook had learned to recognize as Taehyung thinking about how to say what he wanted to say.

"I don't think... I'm supposed to see everything I can see."

Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows at that. He had no idea what Taehyung was talking about. "What?"

"I can see in the dark." Taehyung pointed at his eyes. "This is for human eyes."

Jungkook couldn't help laughing. Of fucking course. Honestly, he should have expected this, but then again this was just too hilarious.

"What did you see?"

"Some humans... kissing? Or more." Taehyung shrugged, tilting his head as he looked straight ahead. They were probably already like three rooms further that Jungkook hadn't seen, but he could look at cheap horror stuff everyday. Talking to a siren was somewhat of a once in a lifetime experience. Maybe, in his case, a four months at once, but probably still only once experience.

"It's messy." Taehyung muttered as another dramatic scream cut through the air. Jungkook really wasn't sure whether Taehyung was referring to the place or the kiss... or more? Did that mean they were hooking up somewhere in this haunted ride? Jungkook sure would have loved to see that.

"So you can just see in the dark like its daylight?" Jungkook asked curiously.

"Duller colors." Taehyung turned to look forward again just in time for a loud sound that Jungkook really couldn't identify and something jumping out of a clock that was leaning against the wall and right at their wagon. Jungkook couldn't contain his laughter when Taehyung hissed loudly. Even if Taehyung could see in the dark... that couldn't stop him from startling at cheap jumpscares.

"Oh god, I think this is the first time that you hissing was not something that made me nervous." Jungkook chuckled, feeling a little hyper. Maybe it was the fact that he had drunk too much cola or the fact that this was one of the first days he actually had been having fun again since Taehyung showed up. Or even worse... probably since Minji had broken up with him.

Taehyung clicked his tongue, crossing his arms over his chest, but even that couldn't hide the smile that was curling the corners of his lips upwards, even the tiniest bit. Maybe Taehyung thought it was funny too.

"Man, I was hoping to see you get startled in here... that was kinda worth it, not gonna lie." Jungkook chuckled again, glancing back towards the room that once again had changed. He really hadn't seen anything of the ride so far.

"Let's finish this thing and then go eat something... you know what? You like meat, right? Let's search for a good steakhouse... I think you might enjoy that."

A/N

My memory of this chapter was that its short... I was wrong😂

How did you guys like it?🥺💜